Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Tribal Peoples


Did I tell you guys I was going to Alaska? No? Well, I am--at the end of April. yay!

Anyway, the following story has to do with me going to Alaska.

I was checking out at the desk of the pediatricians office this morning, and there's this lady there named Sue who always checks me out. Sue is as dumb as a bag of hammers, too, you guys. Seriously, if I had a nickle for every time she screwed up Odessa's file, I'd have like 50 cents already, and Odessa's only 13 months old!

Anyway, so Sue was trying to schedule our next appointment and the phone rang, so she put that person on hold, and asked about whether I could get Odessa in during the week I was going to be in Alaska, and I said, "How about the week after?"

Sue (imagine a sort of high, northern accent): Why? Where are you going?
Me: Alaska.
Sue stares at me like a cockroach just crawled out of my nose.
Me: For work. I'm going for work that whole week, so if we could do it the next---
Sue: Wow. Hey--do they speak English there?
Me:Um, yeah--it's one of the United States of America....
Sue (flustered): Oh sure--Alaska! I was thinking of something else. Sorry. But it's mostly just Indians, right?
Me: Um, no. Nope. There are Native people there, but I think they mostly speak English....
Sue: Well, so are you going there to meet with tribal peoples?
Me: Uh, no. I'm going to a conference. For environmentalists.
Sue: Oh! Neat. Well, so what will the weather be like?
Me: It will probably still be pretty cold in April.
Sue: Oh, the weather's different huh? I guess it's probably not the same as here.... Like, I know it's different in Australia than it is here.
Me: Yep--Australia is different too....
Dr Albert (who had been standing behind Sue filling out a chart the whole time. She looks like Michelle Obama and I'm intimidated by her biceps) very quietly: Sue. Who's on line 1?

And that was the end.
Tribal peoples. Amazing!

7 comments:

  1. Once upon a time there was a country called Vermont...I lived there for a while, and never found the US Embassy. They never heard of Georgia, or the South and they didn't know where Califonia was...they were sorta' tribal up there...I'm glad I escaped with my Southerness intact.

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  2. At least Sue wasn't a blood relative:
    1. My aunt, while watching a newscaster of Asian decent: "he's kinda cute"
    My cousin: "you can't think he's cute he's Chinese!"
    My aunt: "you know, he speaks English pretty good for being a Chinese"

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  3. ...sad to say I have a coworker who thinks that Africa is a country.

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  4. Well, I think those were some pretty good questions. By the way, will you be staying in an igloo?
    Ma

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  5. Oh, sue! I have had countless experiences with her as well...none being as good as your story though. It takes about 20 minutes to get out of that place!

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